This blog provides delicious,traditional, vegetarian, South Indian Recipes from my mother Chitra Amma's kitchen. There are few 'world recipes' as well!
Thanks to Shravan, Pranav, Akash, Tara, Guggs, Shankari, Adu and Appa Ramachandran for the photos!

FoodBuzz

Saturday, October 4, 2008

the demon Mahishasura and his retinue, than Dasara! According to the legend, the war lasted for nine days and victory prevailed on the tenth day - the Vijaya Dasami day. It is considered auspicious to start any venture on this day for its glorious success.

Mother Goddess is worshipped on all the ten days with great fervor. It is also a dolls festival and children and women get busy with Kolu or Bombe Koorisodu. The various types of dolls made of mud are show cased on nine steps constructed for the purpose. This is to illuminate the fact that the diverse creations are all made up of the one and the same element.

Animals, fish and birds are usually arranged on the first step from the ground, and then human beings and the avataras follow, culminating in the Divine form of the Goddess on the ninth or the highest step, indicating the evolution of creation.

The picture alongside shows a Nala Gowri puppet. These puppets are life size, an can be assembled in a variety of postures, and dressed up in different costumes.

Married women (Suvasinis) and young girls (Baalaas) are considered as the Goddess personified. They are invited and honoured with taamboolaas (Betel leaves, areca nuts, kumkum and turmeric powder, coconuts and flowers) as a mark of reverence. They are even treated to a grand feast at least on one day, if not on all the ten days.

Every day a special dish is offered to the deity during the pooja. Sakkarai Pongal, Ven Pongal, Curd rice, Tamarind Rice, and different types of payasams are prepared for the purpose. Sundal is prepared and offered in the evenings and it is distributed to the visitors who come to view the kolu.

Here is the recipe for Paal Payasam which I learnt from my athai (aunt) - who used to celebrate Navaratri with great religious fervour.

PAAL PAYASAMPaal Payasam is a rice and milk based porridge like sweet, cooked a in heavy bottomed bronze vessel called Urli (see picture below). Rice is cooked in milk on slow fire for a long time until it reaches the creamy and right consistency.

We can achieve more or less the same result by using a pressure cooker which is less time consuming and demanding less attention.INGREDIENTS:Rice – ½ cup

Milk - 3 cupsSugar – ¾ cupCardamom – 4Saffron – a few strandsAlmonds – 8METHOD:1. Soak saffron in a tablesppon of warm milk and keep it aside.2. Soak almonds in warm water, peel and coarsely crush and keep aside.3. Dry roast rice until it acquires a reddish colour.4. Wash the roasted rice and add the milk and pressure cook until three whistles.5. Leave it on low flame for five more minutes and turn off the flame.6. When the pressure subsides, open the cooker and add sugar.7. Cook without the lid until the sugar blends with the payasam.8. Add saffron, powdered cardamom and crushed almonds. Enjoy the creamy and rich Paal Payasam after offering it to the deity.

It was a pleasure for me to come across your site! I am a Bengali married to a Telugu foodie, so I was frantically looking for a website which posted authentic south indian recipes! Now, it looks like my search is over!

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Hello

Welcome to Chitra Amma's Kitchen.

I am Dibs. I am a born Foodie. I love to cook; love to eat; love to feed folks who appreciate good food. Blogging provides me a great way of documenting my mother, Chitra’s recipes, as a ready reference irrespective which time zone I live in. Amma honestly makes the best food I've ever had, and somehow, the anecdotes she tells us, make the dishes taste all the better.Most posts here are written by my mother Chitra. It’s her recipes, along with related reminiscences of people, places and anecdotes. She writes, I post!What started for a lark, has now become a serious hobby, drawing in participation from the whole family. My father, S.R. Ramachandran has started clicking away every dish made at home! Aunts, cousins, siblings, contribute to photos, and ask for recipes.We try to illustrate implements such as utensils, grinding stones and so on from the ‘pre-electric-mixer’ days wherever possible. We hope this will make an interesting read for future generations, on how food was cooked in earlier times!The site is still in its infancy, and slowly evolving, as our skills improve! We invite your comments, ideas, and questions, and will attempt answering them.

Thank you for your visit, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Chitra Amma’s Kitchen.